(Click Cover To Download)

Aesop Rock - Bazooka Tooth (Instrumentals)

Producer: Aesop Rock, Blockhead, EL-P

Year: 2003

Who put the monkey wrench in well oiled prefectionist emblem
Just to watch these moniters spit white noise
through your office space auto made
I infect knowledge gene pool dissented cloud clusters
Brushing dust mites off your starborn all revolution sound jugglers
Delinquent fan for brick habitat bob, weave, stick, move fence
and put somewhere in the middle for slick invention
This years brain crop spread spectacular
I ain't mad at cha don't stay mad at the caliber
I twist characters like twist characters
Talley up the alley cat aggresion
in this Doug E. Fresh infested mess up bassline lust
An automatic B-boy krylon can't combust circuits
Working these war picked cyphers
with head striker stability and kamakazi chivalry
I alone noble in a warm food feud
Walking ten generations ain't nobody asking for your patience
Who ranned off but only meet to face the fact
that I knew myself and didn't have to ask nobody else
(Talk about labor) Fantastic planet urchin puting work in
Searching for pertinent verse minus the murderous diversions
Apologies won't lore me to the communal sob story
nor would I sacrifice lifestyle to benefit jewerly temperament
This whole Green Goblin webcutter butts up against
crayola daydream landscapes spittin bedlam, Datum
Charge the villagers nickles and nicotine
to watch them fed to undiscreniled crack at the high noon
(We sell popcorn, beer and balloons!)
I got an echelon this gon be the one children bicker over
And start warriors vs. baseball fury element
to glitches mode of century development
I am a star really! The big bang bastard's back
with a one way ticket to Beat Street
This soil is like relevent to human concept
plot the man ratios man learning, I work past the service
I work on what I love, I work the service on my vertince
And I work till this here little flat line closes the curtains

Well, it's been a little while since my last update so there is much to talk about. At work, I find I need to have very specific types of music playing to help my ability to type fast and not be too far taken out of my concentration. With this in mind, two types of music continually find their way onto playlists I make and so are often my working music pieces. The first is hip hop and in the past few weeks, I've become partially obsessed with finding good, eccentric and esoteric hip hop albums that sound interesting and manage to avoid much of the posing and faux-gangster braggadocio of much of mainstream rap. Peanut Butter Wolf and Madvillain are both amazing for this with the second's Madvillainy album now placing itself among my all-time favourites in any genre. Also working for me are Prefuse 73, Flying Lotus, Aesop Rock, Cadence Weapon, J Dilla, Cannibal Ox, Edan, El-P and Sage Francis. All are recommended to those who like to avoid getting too much syrupy R 'n' B with their hip hop. Having said that, a man whose purveyance of syrupy R 'n' B verges on the R Kelly, T.I., has made the incredible, thrilling 'Swagger Like Us' with Lil Wayne (whose 'A Milli' is also a total masterpiece), Kanye West and the king of brag-rap, Jay-Z. For all my dislike of that kind of hip hop from lesser minds, this is a truly incredible song.

The other portion that's working for me right now is long-form electronica and textural compositions. Lindstrom's new album is wonderful while I would thoroughly boost Tim Hecker and Fennesz for some more challenging and dense electronic work. I've also fallen head-over-heels for the sweet, weird little songs from Books, a fine group making slight but hugely enjoyable albums of electronic-inflected indie. Just as a post-note on this, you can also add into the genres I dig for writing krautrock. I love me some really repetitive, motorik sound of Neu and Can, the latter providing some far more out-there, almost hippie moments while the former, and superior, is guitar-based pounding symphonies of rhythm and discipline. Neu would probably rank up as my absolute favourite of all for writing.

Other than these, and outside of work, I've become a little over-obsessed with a cover of ODB's 'Shimmy Shimmy Ya' by White Pony and I really love the uber-heavy reggae dub of The Bug. The Hold Steady continue to float every portion of my boat, Jay Reatard (terrible name) has a singles collection which is filled with dirty garage rock and hooky choruses, the new songs from TV on the Radio are awesome and 'Nonpareil of Favor', the new track from Of Montreal, is terrific. Also well done to Elbow for winning the Mercury, even if it should have gone to Burial. Seldom Seen Kid is a fine record, even if they should really have won for their first record. At least, unlike many of the last few winners, they looked genuinely happy to have won the award rather than skulking off and remaining 'cool' in the moment.

 
Film

Busy weeks again on this front. Tom and I completed our 1980s marathon by finding out that Top Gun sucks, as does Arnie's Red Heat. However, Total Recall holds up far better than it has any right to do and has ushered in an Arnie marathon which has thus far included Terminator (still superb) and Conan the Barbarian (has its moments). More are planned so stay tuned for that.

Better, and way cooler, than any of this though is Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai. Following Alain Delon's Jef Costello, a Parisian hitman, through and existential passage of his life following a hit, it's maybe the finest example I have ever seen of a hitman movie. Melville's true skill is the economy of his filmmaking, allowing enigma to exist without providing spoonfed explanations for all that occurs and never over-indulging in dialogue. Alain Delon is likely the coolest human and if you witness this movie and don't have an immediate urge to go and purchase a trenchcoat and hat, along with at least 500 packs of cigarettes, I don't know your kind. It's beautifully filmed, sparely written and acted without any theatrics from anyone involved. All remains at a level of cool detachment that, rather than making this overly-cold or uncomfortable, just makes you try harder to understand and engage with the story, the rewards for which are more than satisfactory. Hyperbole perhaps but I think this goes straight in amongst my all-time favourite films and I cannot recommend highly enough that you seek it out and take it in. I will now be searching out the rest of Melville's work, including Le Cercle Rouge and Le Doulos.

I also got to see Pineapple Express which I absolutely loved. I'm a big lover and apologist for the Apatow-Rogen team and I really found nothing to hate in the mixture. James Franco is outstanding as Saul, bringing all he has to make sure you completely empathise with their plight and laugh hard while doing so. Rogen isn't as good but I still feel this quasi-paternal nuturing sensation towards his projects due to my loving his work in Freaks and Geeks all that way back. I loved it and honestly, I think most who haven't just didn't drink enough before hand. We had a couple of glasses of wine and this film rocked. As an aside, our housemate also saw it but stone sober and still loved it.

I've managed to set a new rule with my LoveFilm account, only keeping DVDs for two weeks at a time, after which, if not watched, they go back regardless. I've recently taken in Miranda July's Me and You and Everyone We Know which was too quirky for its own good but still quite enjoyable. I watched Pierce Brosnan in The Matador which I was close to loving and I checked out The Saddest Music in the World, Guy Maddin's least-insane film about a contest set up by Isabella Rossellini in which people are invited to come and play the saddest music in the world at her club and win a prize if there is truly the most sad. It was somewhere between an overly-arty minefield of quirk and a complete, emotionally shattering masterpiece and I don't know if I ever know which one it is. Next up is Jacques Tati's M Hulot's Holiday. From there, it could be another Tati, some Tarkovsky, Point Break, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia or Living in Oblivion.

I this week completed Generation Kill, the mini-series on HBO from David Simon and Ed Burns that I wrote about a little while ago. I really loved it by the end, but purely on a level of filmmaking and acting. This is some distance from being enjoyable TV, so relentlessly depressing is its depiction of top brass in the US military and the parallel realisation that the whole thing is based on a true story. But Simon doesn't ever judge and he depicts without any really heavy-handed preaching and with a sense that you understand what happened, what's going on and why the mess is there. Also, Alexander Skarsgaard as Brad Colbert might be my televisual performance of the year.

Tom and I checked out the pilot of Fringe which was only okay and could possibly get interesting but is likely to suffer due to its slightly-less-than-brilliant cast. My  liking of Joshua Jackson unfortunately comes from Dawson's Creek and before that The Mighty Ducks, both pieces of not-well-aging nostalgia pieces that I'm unlikely to ever watch again. The other pilot we checked out was Alan Ball's True Blood, the vampire love story thing set in the deep South of the US in which vampires are just another race of people facing the same prejudices as any other. At current, having watched the first two, I want to like it more than I do but Alan Ball, the creator of Six Feet Under and writer of American Beauty, has earned my trust so I'll give him the first season to make things work before I lay into him.

Other than those, Gossip Girl returned brilliantly and is just the most ridiculously enjoyable show on TV right now. Mad Men is not as soapy and ridiculous but is probably the best show on TV right now in its own right, given that Jon Hamm's performance remains so shockingly good and they are building out the rest of the cast with aplomb. The reimagined 90210 is okay but could prove an annoyance in the long-run while this month sees the return of Heroes, The Office and then a chunk of other bits and bobs to be getting on with.

 
Books

I read Remainder, the winner of The Believer Book Award, by Tom McCarthy which was really strange but kind of great. It follows a man who suffer a psychological shift following a major physical trauma. He wins a massive amount of money through a settlement and embarks on a project to build his own world which continues to escalate until it becomes truly dangerous. I don't want to say too much about it because really, the best way to experience this, is coming in with little or no knowledge of it. In short: recommended.

Better than this was The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, a complete masterpiece from Dominican writer Junot Diaz about an overweight geeky kid and his misadventures in life and love while living in a dictatorial country. It taught me a huge amount about the Dominican Republic's history without ever losing a flow and portraying a cast of fully-drawn character, none of whom were given short shrift. I loved every second of this book and I would advise anyone to seek it out and just sink into its perfect storytelling and sense of language. Nearly perfection.

I'm currently on The Master and the Margharita, a truly classic allegorical novel from Mikail Bulgakov that I'm not even remotely qualified to talk about. Suffice to say, I flipping love it so far but I'll report back more soon.

 
Other

I'm currently getting addicted to shirts for the first time since a brief period when I was younger than saw me purchase a number of Hawaiian-style shirts but graduating to padded lumberjack pieces in the winter. Not a good time. Uniqlo is proving the best for all this right now as its cheap, the clothes are good quality and its stores in London don't have the cattle market chav feel of a Topman or H&M. The latter is still worth a look though. My current ones to hit are Urban Outfitters, Uniqlo, H&M, American Apparel and then maybe some vintage shopping again once the corporatising of Camden is completed.

I'm also really enjoying the political race right now. I'll probably write a piece on it again in the next week or two but the entry of Palin as produced a fascinating new figure that seems to be entirely outshining John McCain. If she's bringing in women, she's got to be pushing out those who were worried McCain was too old. More on that soon.

AESOP ROCK - NONE SHALL PASS (Definitive Jux, 2007)
I don't know, man. On the one hand, this is a pretty solid album. On the other hand, I feel like I've heard it before. If you've heard BAZOOKA TOOTH, then I guess you know what to expect. On Rock's first few albums, he slowly took over more and more production duties from collaborator Blockhead until he produced about 3/4ths of BAZOOKA TOOTH. This represented growth as an artist and he was making beats as creative and progressive as anyone. Fast forward four whole fucking years to NONE SHALL PASS and we're greeted with a less ambitious Aesop, producing less than half of the album and letting Blockhead create much of the other half. This is a shame mainly because Rock's beats are once again better than Blockhead's. And really, all the beats either of them make, save one, sound like they could have been released on the previous album. The exception is a track where Rock lets REAL LIVE musicians lay down some sweet distorted bass. Hey, if he needs to work with live music then so be it. The album's closer features singing by the Mountain Goats guy, which is a bit mixed. I mean, the guy's a shitty singer but the melody over the slamming beat piqued my interest. Maybe Rock should produce some beats for singerz next time? Grade: B

MF DOOM - MM . . . FOOD? (Rhymesayers, 2004)
Another day, another boss Doom album. The beats AND the rhymes are provided by Doom throughout with a few exceptions. As usual, the lyrics deal with nerdy stuff, women, and African-American issues. There are many, many soundbites from what appear to be Fantastic Four cartoons or books on tape, way more than appeared on the Madvillain album. We get it! You're Dr. Doom! Okay! There are ALSO several soundbites from some character that appears to be some sort of backwoods hillbilly with a drug problem? I dunno. They clash with the super hero clips and hurt the cohesiveness of the album. Most of the beats are very strong and a select few are awesome, not because of clever, multilayered mixing, but because Doom found passages within songs that are perfect for looping. This is one of those albums that's much more attractive to fans of alternative rock than fans of standard hip-hop. Grade: B+

PHASES OF THE MOON: CHINESE TRADITIONAL MUSIC
I checked out a bunch of Chinese traditional music CDs on Amazon last year but it took the Beijing Olympix to remind me to actually buy them. The liner notes in this CD aren't the greatest but it appears the album was recorded in the 1980s. It features traditional Chinese melodies representing several ethnic groups performed by the Central Broadcasting Traditional Instruments Orchestra. China does not actually have an orchestral tradition of its own so the music presented isn't strictly traditional but it IS very Chinese. As the orchestra's name implies, Chinese traditional instruments are used but in a large orchestra. The results are great. A lot of the music doesn't make perfect sense according to my Western sensibilities but it's all very listenable and much of it is highly enjoyable. A few of the pieces are highly melodic and emotive. Probably not for everyone but I liked it. Grade: A

crayz_walz_first_words_worse

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I meant to post this track late last night; Blu recorded, and posted [it] all in the same day..

Download: Blu - 'NeverBeAnotherMe'

And in keeping with 'her favourite colour', I'd seen these two tracks floating around but 2db reminded me about them. Folk&Stress out of New York, enlist the assistance of Blu and Aesop Rock for their forthcoming album, The Box. 

Download: Folk&Stress ft. Blu - 'Lear Jet' | ft. Aesop Rock - 'Quiet'

Both of these tracks have been on the internets for a week or so but I never got around to posting them and I still don't know why. Brothers Folk&Stress both hail from NY and both can spit. Add the fact that they have 2 of my favorite emcess (Blu and Aesop Rock) on records and it just gets better. Both joints will be on their upcoming album, The Box, also featuring GZA, Vast Aire and Bronze Nazareth.

DOWNLOAD: Folk&Stress - Lear Jet f. Blu | MediaFire
DOWNLOAD: Folk&Stress - Quiet f. Aesop Rock | MediaFire

I often find myself thinking about all the things that she will do and have in her childhood that I didn’t (like the internet or the multitude of gadgets and gizmos) and how that is going to frame her world.  No wonder parents and children have trouble understanding each other, our points of reference are so dramatically different from generation to generation! But, with some nostalgia and a bit of sadness, I also find myself thinking about the things I had that she may not, like Saturday morning cartoons, lightning bugs and honeybees, and mix tapes.

I know that in today’s world we can make playlists for each other, but it just isn’t the same. I don’t want to sound like the stereotypical stodgy old parent here … Back in my day, if we wanted to put a particular song on a mix tape, we actually had to go to a store and buy a cassingle or sit by the radio listening to Casey Kasem on Sunday morning hoping to catch that one song we wanted at just the right moment without too much commentary over the intro and record it on our cassette player. Making a mix tape took initiative and work! None of this downloading from iTunes, drag and drop nonsense … but there was just something special about mix tapes.

I loved making mix tapes for people (and receiving them as well). I had a close group of friends in high school, and after we graduated we were all going our separate ways. I wanted to find a way to tell them how much their friendships meant to me, how important they were to me, but I couldn’t find words to really capture what I was trying to say, so I made them all mix tapes.  I made little inserts for the tape covers with little notes next to each song title about why this song reminded me of them, and I decorated the tape itself. Each song I picked had meaning and thought behind it. I knew that I could not find the right words to tell them how much they meant to me, but I hoped that the music could. Aside from being something tangible that you could gift wrap and actually hand over to someone, I like mix tapes more than playlists because mix tapes had a finite amount of space on them – usually either 60 or 90 minutes. The endlessness of playlists overwhelms me sometimes.  I find myself putting less thought into them because I have an endless amount of space and can put as many songs as I want on them; so I don’t really have to find that perfect song that says it all because I can put 5 songs that kind of say some of it on the playlist instead.

Miss M will make fun of me for this mix tape nostalgia one day, and she will call me old-fashioned, and I can accept that. But, I hope that maybe one day she will run across my box of mix tapes and ask me about them, what they meant to me and why I bothered to save them all these years if we don’t even have a tape player anymore. To steal the corny tag line from somewhere … because those tapes are part of the soundtrack of my life.

If I were to make Miss M a good, ol’ fashion 60 minute mix tape today to try and convey some of the lessons I hope to pass on to her or that I hope she will learn through her own life experiences this might be what I would put on Volume One (not necessarily in this order)…

No Regrets by Aesop Rock
“Look, I ain’t never had a dream in my life because a dream is what you wanna do but still haven’t pursued. I knew what I wanted and did it till it was done, so I’ve been the dream that I wanted to be since day one.”

With a Little Help from my Friends by the Beatles
I would not be who I am nor where I am today were it not for my friends. I have been blessed to meet and befriend some of the most amazing people of heart, mind and spirit on this earth. Treasure your friends. Love them. Share your toys with them and treat them right.  Don’t allow time or distance to take them away.

Old Dirt Hill by Dave Matthews
The best word I can think of to describe this song is a Japanese one, natsukashii, which loosely translates into nostalgia but it doesn’t quite cover it. Don’t be in a rush to grow up (wow, I guess I really am a parent now, huh?). Enjoy the simple pleasures. Enjoy that first kiss … because you will look back on those times when life gets harder down the road, and I hope those memories bring a smile to your face and a warmth to your heart when you need it most.

Magalenha by Sergio Mendes
Dance. Dance from your heart. Dance from your soul. Let the music move you. Just dance.

I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor
I dread the day Miss M’s heart gets broken for the first time because nothing I say or do will make it better, and she won’t quite know yet that she will survive that unbearable pain and that only time will truly heal it. None the less, this song got me (and countless others) going on many a dark day and hopefully it will do the same for her because nothing feels better or makes you feel stronger than that day when you can finally look at that heartbreaker and honestly say “Oh no, now go, walk out the door, just turn around now, ‘cause you’re not welcome anymore. Weren’t you the one who tried to crush me with good bye, Did you think I’d crumble? Did you think I’d lay down and die? Oh no not I! I will survive! … I’m not that chained up little person still in love with you … now I’m savin’ all my lovin’ for someone who’s loving ME!”

La Vida es un Carneval by Celia Cruz
She was known as the queen of salsa for a reason. It’s worth reading the full lyrics on this one (in the original Spanish if you can, but here is an English translation). “Everyone out there that thinks that life is unfair, Needs to know that's not the case, Because life is beautiful, you just have to live it… Everyone out there that thinks that life is always harsh, Need to know that's not the case, That there are just bad times, and it will all pass. Everyone out there, that thinks that this will never change, Need to know that's not the case, The bad times will turn, it will all pass.”

The Gambler by Kenny Rogers (although I prefer the Mike Doughty cover)
“You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run. You never count your money when you’re sitting at the table. There’ll be time enough for counting when the dealin's done.”

Cookie Jar by Jack Johnson
“It was you, it was me, it was every man. We’ve all got the blood on our hands. We only will see what we demand, and if we want hell then hell is what we’ll have.” The media, society, retailers, the ever elusive “they” … supply us (the public) with what we ask for. If you don’t like a company’s actions, don’t buy from them or give them your hard earned money. If you don’t like the message you see on TV, don’t watch it. Our every day actions and decisions do have power. Take responsibility for your own life. There will always be influences and contributing factors, but in the end you are responsible for what you choose to do. Don’t put that blame on someone else just because you don’t want to face the consequences of your actions (or lack of action as the case may be). Kind of heavy stuff for a kid to digest, but we’ll work on it slowly.

Imagine by John Lennon
What kind of a crunchy, lefty, liberal, tree-huggin’ mom would I be if this wasn’t my ultimate vision for the world that I wish to leave to my daughter?  “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope some day you join us, and the world will live as one.”

32 Flavors by Ani DiFranco
Strive to be your best self always. Never dumb yourself down or pretend to be someone that you are not to suit someone else’s needs. I think Marianne Williamson put it best:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of the universe. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of the universe that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Looking for the Holes by Ani DiFranco
“you can talk a great philosophy, but if you can't be kind to people every day it doesn't mean that much to me. it's the little things you do, the little things you say it's the love you give along the way” We are all hypocrites at one point or another, no one is perfect, but strive to make your actions match your words. Be kind. Be conscious. There isn’t much point in just sitting around and complaining, if you aren’t going to do something about it.

Let’s Talk About Sex by Salt-N-Pepa
The title says it all! Sex is a natural and, hopefully, beautiful part of life, but it comes with an incredible amount of responsibility and far-reaching consequences. As a parent, it is my responsibility to provide Miss M with accurate, comprehensive information so that she can make the best decisions to take care of herself. It would be incredibly irresponsible of me to stick my head in the sand and not arm her with the knowledge and information she needs to understand the possibly life altering consequences of her actions. From what I’m told, it is pretty difficult to control the actions of a teenager, but that is no excuse for my failing to prepare her properly. If I do a good job, hopefully, she will feel comfortable talking to me, or at least another well-informed, guiding person in her life. And to talk with her friends. And most importantly, to talk with her partner openly and about everything - if she doesn’t feel comfortable talking with them about sexual history and boundaries, then she should probably rethink sleeping with them in the first place. And, if applicable, always use a condom.

By Your Side by Sade
Love. Unabashedly. Foolishly. With all that you are. Do not be afraid to love. It will hurt. Your heart will break, but it will heal. Love, care for and accept yourself for who you are because only then will you be able to truly love another and receive their love in return. My hope is that Miss M will be as lucky as I have been to find a partner to sing these words to and to hear them in return from that same person. If it is true that little girls end up finding partners that are like their dads, then Miss M will be truly lucky indeed.

So that mix is kind of like a good tapas or dim sum meal … a little bit of this a little bit of that, best if digested in the company of good friends with good conversation, lots of laughter and your beverage of choice. Music, like all forms of art, is highly personal and the interpretation of it is subject to the perceptions of the person doing the interpreting. I’ll be lucky if I can get Miss M to listen to any of these songs, which will all be golden oldies by the time she is a teen, much less hear what I want her to hear in them.  Much like it's fun to look back through my box of old mix tapes and remember what I was like back then, I think it will be really interesting (and probably really funny) to look back at this list about ten years from now because by then the thing that I am just starting to understand now will probably be cemented in stone – that I really have it all wrong and it isn’t about me teaching her lessons, but rather her teaching me.

What song would you add to a mix tape for the next generation?

Alexandre Muzzillo Lopes, o DJ Primo, 28, morreu às 5h desta segunda-feira [08.09.2008], no Hospital das Clínicas, em São Paulo. Segundo informações iniciais, a causa da morte foi pneumonia.

De acordo com a assessoria de imprensa da TV Cultura, onde o DJ participava do programa "Manos & Minas", apresentado pelo cantor Rappin Hood, Primo fez shows no final de semana e passou mal na madrugada, quando o irmão o levou para o Hospital das Clínicas.

O artista paranaense iniciou oficialmente a carreira em 1996. Primo tocou pela primeira vez em São Paulo em 1999, e mudou para a capital paulista em 2002. Tocou junto com Afrika Bambaataa e nomes do circuito do rap alternativo como Hieroglyphics, Aesop Rock e Rob Sonik.

O DJ produziu Marcelo D2, MC Cindy, Helião e Negra Li. Primo tocava em diversas casas noturnas de São Paulo. Ele namorava a atriz Patrícia de Jesus, a Perpétua da novela "Os Mutantes", da Record.

Foto de Luciano Piva (divulgação), encontrada na matéria da Folha Online.

Grayskul are kicking off a month long tour today in their home town of Seattle, WA. They'll be joining Aesop Rock and the Living Legends at different times throughout the tour. Pick up your tickets today and they'll see you on the road!

09.05 - Seattle, WA @ Nectar
09.06 - Portland, OR @ Rock N Roll Pizza
09.07 - Spokane, WA @ The Boulevard
09.08 - Salem, OR @ Triangle Inn
09.09 - Eugene, WA @ John Henry's Club
09.10 - Sacramento, CA @ Silk 2
09.12 - Pamona, CA @ Glass House *
09.13 - West Hollywood, CA @ Troubadour *
09.17 - Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern *
09.18 - Fresno, CA @ Exit *
09.19 - San Luis Obispo, CA @ Downtown Brewing Co. *
09.22 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge %
09.23 - Boulder, CO @ Fox Theater %
09.24 - Aspen, CO @ Belly Up %
09.25 - Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater %
09.26 - Phoenix, AZ @ Brickhouse %
09.27 - Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre %
09.28 - Anaheim, CA @ House Of Blues %

* with Aesop Rock
% with Living Legends

Click here to preview the album on emusic

Aesop Rock "9-5ers Anthem"

No abstract left field hip hop shit next FOR YOU!  photo by Jimmy Giambrone

Aesop Rock did a one-off show here in Philly this past Tuesday at the Trocadero.  The place was packed, Yak Ballz and Gray Skull did some wicka-wickas, and things got funky.  I've seen Ace four times and last night was probably his tighest set, front to back.   The addition of DJ Big Wiz was huge--he brings alot to the table(s), pun intended.  Rob Sonic is good in small doses, though I wish Mr. Lif was Aesop's hype man--the two have better chemistry (back when they played the First Unitarian Church on the Bazooka Tooth tou)r and compliment each other's music, gestures, and physical appearance.  Lif did come on stage (he lives in Philly now) after the encore performance of "No Regrets" to do some off the headsshizz. 

Aesop's set relied heavily on cuts from his last album, the hella dope None Shall Pass.  I saw him last September when that tour began.  It's great to see a performer fine tune a set after a while--Tuesday's set had a better order of songs, more crowd participation, a great DJ solo set from Big Wiz, and some surprise songs from his catalogue ("Big Bang" from Float was completely unexpected--it took me back to my college days, waiting for weeks for HipHopSite.com to re-stock copies of the album, then devouring every word of that record with Nico for a year).  Plus, did "Daylight" and "Nightlight" back to back.  Seven years later, and people still go apeshit for that song (myself included). 

You can check out photos from the Trenton Terror, Mr. Jimmy Giambrone, over at 215hiphop.com's photo gallery.

I remember the first time I heard M.F. DOOM...I was listening to this track titled "Dead Bent" off of the Farewell Fondle 'Em compilation (Released by Bobbito through Definitive Jux Records, October 30, 2001).

I was just riding chilling and enjoying another ridiculously tight definitive jux compilation (prior to this they had dropped the Definitive Jux presents volume 1 compilation which served as my introduction to a host of acts like Cannibal Ox, Aesop Rock, Mr. Lif, Copywrite, Ill Bill, RJD2, MHZ, Copywrite, etc. etc...they just don't make rosters like they used to...then again Duck Down is doing a damn fine job of bringing focus back to the music with their roster...but as usual I digress)

M.F. DOOM...so I'm riding around town with my boy Joe, just listening to our latest CD purchase (yep, your broke when 2 people go in on a CD), and then all of a sudden...

I hold the mic, like niggas hold they girls tight/but I ain't after her prolly your acura pearl white

Next up, it was 1998 and I just got a new vhs...yeah man M.F'n VHS...Shorty's Fulfill the dream In addition to showing team members like Chad Muska, Steve Olson, Sammy Baptista, Toan Nguyen, Jesse Silvey, Aaron Snyder, Brandon Turner, Peter Smolik and an ill ass soundtrack. Enter  Quasimoto...now don't ask me what track was playing...but I know it was off of the unseen, which until then I had yet to discover.

Nope nope that was Brandon skating to Company Flow...damn...does anyone know which late 90's skate video featured Quasimoto?!? Moving along.

It's amazing how great things, great sounds, great people are naturally drawn together. I never would have thought that years down the line these two musical forces that I'd stumbled across would get together to form one of the most ridiculous hip hop albums of this decade

With all of the "build up"  in this post you can imagine how happy I was to see Madvillain come to fruition (unlike the unlikely swift and changeable...damn). Well at least I can relive the magic again with a superior box set put together by Stones Throw Records to accompany Madlib's remix of the Madvillainy masterpiece.

The pre-orders for the Madvillainy 2 set have ended but the album is available everywhere. Don't lose hope just yet though, after the september 15th stones throw will be departing with a small reserve of the set...enjoy

Aesop Rock with Panther, and Chin Chin 2pm at Mccarren Pool

There's an afterparty for this one too at Union Pool with the awesome El-P

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings at 3:00pm at Summerstage

If you haven't seen them live, go now. Sharon Jones can work it.

First up: Electronic legends Boards of Canada. If you like them, I'd suggest checking out Clark (clip) or Proem (track). I don't think either really has the kind of druggy haze that BoC does so well (Clark is more dense, Proem more digital), but they both have similar accessibility and the same head-nodding hip-hop substructure.

Speaking of hip-hop, if you're into Kanye, Common, Lupe, or any of the other mainstream "backpack" MC's, I'd really suggest giving some spins to what I feel is one of the top 5 hip-hop records of all time: Aesop Rock's "Labor Days" (track, and I'll buy you a drink if you catch the literary reference in it). In terms of intellectual lyricism, I don't think it gets much better than this -- Ace can sometimes get bogged down in his own flow, but not on Labor Days. Every track on it is tight and precise, and C-Rayz Walz and Illogic rise to the occasion with staggering guest spots.

If you're into classical music, more power to you. I don't really know a damn thing about classical music. But, I do listen to a few minimalist "modern classical" (I don't like that label, but I don't know what to call it instead) composers that, hey, maybe you might enjoy. I'd suggest Max Richter (track), Sylvain Chauveau (track), or Ólafur Arnalds (track).

DJ culture has a lot of superstars: The Pauls van Dyk and Oakenfold, Sasha, Tiesto, etc etc. I got into dance music through these guys just like I'm sure many others did, but there are a lot of under-the-radar producers who are just as good. If you like it deep and dubby, I suggest H.Amézquita (track), a Mexican producer on Static Discos who put out one great LP then seemingly vanished. If you like more of a techno edge, try out Chicago's own Kate Simko (track) or her work with Andres Bucci as Detalles. And if you like your dance music a little funkier, try anything on Get Physical (home of Booka Shade and M.A.N.D.Y., and their mix CD's are exceptional) or Om (Kaskade, Mark Farina).

Moving on to jazz... If you, like all men and women of culture, are familiar with Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue," well, excellent. It's revered for good reason. But you want something that not everyone's on to, right? Something crazy and collegiate? Then I suggest the fabulous Polish free jazz combo Robotobibok (track). They do a lot of wild improvisation, but not so much that it's unlistenable. If you find that too busy, try Pink Freud instead -- also Polish, also very modern (they have a turntablist!), but less avant-garde and more psychedelic instead.

Finally, as Brian did, let me throw some suggestions out there for anyone reading this and laughing derisively. These will mostly be electronic:

Like Squarepusher, Autechre, etc? Try Yasume.
Like "ambient" music? Try The Fun Years or Fjordne.
Like post-rock? Try The Drift.
And if you want extreme electronic cred, check out Telecognac or Cyclo.